Staycation - Day 8

Domesticity  Food Friday

The guys went golfing, and the girls stayed home a baked.  Good, healthy snacks.

We made chia oatmeal breakfast cookies

bananadoodles

and peanut butter cranberry granola bites

The chia breakfast cookies were - well, let's just say - not a fan favorite.  The banana doodles were

and I've made the peanut butter cranberry bites before so we knew those would be good.

We had a delicious dinner of steak, baked potatoes, salad and green beans, and then some ooey-gooey smores.  Some with Hersey Bars, some with Reeses.    

Yum!

CSA Day!

There's a group of us at work who are participating in a CSA.  Every Tuesday we get a new delivery of meat, cheese, eggs and produce.  This week we got ground beef, pepper and onion brats, chicken breast, carrots, a couple varieties of squash, and brussels sprouts - along with eggs, cheese and almond butter.  The quality of the food is fabulous.  Even the eggs are so much tastier than what we get at the grocery store.  

Every week when that delivery email hits the inbox, people start heading into the lunchroom to see what we got.  It's a lot of fun - and gives a chance to play "What is this?",  and then "What do I do with it?"  We're learning new things every week.  Last week I learned how to prepare beets - this week I could use some help with the brussels sprouts - anyone??

I always knew what a CSA was - it's like a subscription service where you buy food.  Good food.  Free range, grass fed, non GMO -- you know, good old fashioned food.  CSA actually stands for Consumer Supported Agriculture.  One of the owners of the farm came into the office to give us a presentation.  She and her husband were government employees who burned out and wanted to farm.  They knew they probably couldn't be self-supporting, so in order to do this, they needed to become a CSA.  For them, it was't just that they had an abundance of food and thought they could sell it for a profit, it was actually a business plan.  They've been doing this for 18 years now and still love what they do.

Check them out here.

Peach Cobbler

Easy Peach Cobbler is what the blog said  http://thepeachtruck.com/blogs/blog/14253153-easy-peach-cobbler

As much as I hate to cook meals, I love to bake.  And when a recipe name starts with the word easy, I'm willing to take a look.  If it doesn't look quick and easy, I'm probably not going to make it.  But this one - this was easy.  Remember the peach cobbler I mentioned here?

I had peaches that were past their prime, but I didn't want to throw them away.  I peeled and sliced the peaches, 

melted the butter right in the baking dish, mixed the other ingredients - poured it all in the pan and spooned the peaches on top.

 Into the oven, and Presto.   Oh-My-Goodness deliciousness in a baking dish.  I wish you had smell-o-vision, because this smelled fabulous.

 A dish of this with a little cool whip on top - mmm mmm good!!

Thanks Peach Truck!!

Now,  a couple of things - because I view a recipe as a suggestion, not a mandate.  I didn't have self-rising flour, so I used Bisquick (it's the same thing, right?) and I had 3 cups of peaches (5 peaches cut up) not four, so I used 3/4 of the amount of everything else (see kids - math does come in handy!) and used an 8x8 pan.  It did take almost the full 40 minutes, and when I looked at it I didn't think it was done.  But it was cooked through and delicious.  

It's definitely not a diet recipe, and I might work on slimming it down a little, but I think a splurge is justified when it's something this good. 

I am not a Foodie

In fact, I'm probably the opposite of a foodie.  I'm not sure what that's called.  It's not that I don't like food - I eat.  But I eat for nourishment, not for enjoyment.  So when I rave about a meal, you know it's good.  And dinner tonight, was really good.

I joined a CSA at work (more about that in another post).  Last week was the first week and one of the things in the food package was a bunch of fresh beets.  I've never cooked beets (and neither had any of my co-workers that I asked), so I posted a request on Facebook and got lots of helpful hints and recipes.  Since we were already cooking on the grill, we decided to go with Deb Rebiero's suggestion to sprinkle them with olive oil, wrap in foil, and cook them on the grill for about an hour.  They were delicious!

Another CSA item this week was a whole roaster chicken.  Not too big.  Just the right size for beer can chicken.  If you've never cooked it, you should try it.  You can google a recipe, we don't really use one.

We had green beans freshly picked from the garden earlier today.  I blanched and froze a couple of bags full earlier, but kept out enough to have with dinner.

And a fresh salad.  Leaf lettuce (CSA again!) romaine, spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, peppers - most everything from the farmers market.  Delicious!

Imagine this is a picture of my 

dinner plate heaped full of food.  

Sorry!  I couldn't wait to dig in!!

Oh, and I also made peach cobbler for dessert.  We haven't eaten that yet, but I'll have to let you know it is.  

Ciao!

A Taste of Summer

Fresh Strawberries

and Blueberries

on Angel Food Cake with a little whipped cream.

Yup - tastes like summer!!!

Blueberry Crumb Bars

These are so good!!

 I didn't have fresh local blueberries, but they were on sale this week and I got a lot - a lot more than we could eat before they went bad.  At first I thought I would freeze some, but then I thought I should bake something.   So began the long process of searching Pinterest for a recipe.  After hours of searching (it's so easy to get sidetracked in Pinterest!)  I made these.  Here's the link to the recipe http://damndelicious.net/2013/03/07/blueberry-crumb-bars/.

I didn't have enough all purpose flour, so I used half all purpose flour and half rice flour.  The rice flour seems to be a finer grind, so I think it would have been a bit 'heavier' with only all purpose flour.    But you could make a pretty decent gluten free version of these.  I think I will try using half whole wheat flour next time. They would be great with that little bit of nutty flavor and it would add a great texture.

All in all - really good!  And I'm neither a foody nor a cook.  I think this brings the list of edible things I make to six.......

They were so good that we had them for dessert last night and Jim ate

 it again for breakfast.  Fruit, flour, eggs = breakfast!!

Fat Tuesday!!

You know what that means ---

King Cake!!

This is a cake - kind of like an Easter braid without the braid - with gooey sugar icing and decorated with purple, green and gold sprinkles.  In case you're wondering about the colors, the purple stands for justice, the green for faith and the gold for power.  They are the three colors that embody the whole Mardi Gras celebration.  The cakes, the beads, the floats, the masks,  you name it - those three colors are everywhere.

Oh, and there's a baby in the cake.  Each cake has a little plastic baby baked inside of it.  Tradition says that the person who gets the baby has to host the next years' party.  

And lots of people in dressed up in (some pretty weird) costumes

And some dressed to the nines

This is my father and one of his sisters, my Auntie Pearl.  Auntie Pearl and Uncle Mert moved to Louisiana years ago - sometime in the 1960's I think - and they belonged to a club that had a Mardi Gras Ball every year.  There would be a theme to the ball, and all the ladies would dress in costumes relating to the theme, and the men were in tuxes.  This was the year after Uncle Mert passed away.  Auntie Pearl had asked my dad if he would escort her to the ball, and then had sent up Uncle's tux so he could have it altered.  We went down and enjoyed the festivities.  Always lots of fun!

And this is my absolute favorite picture of Auntie Pearl and Uncle Mert. They were the King and Queen of the ball that year.  Such a sweet picture....

Mmmm - a nice fall breakfast

It's not really cold this morning, but I was looking for something that would keep me full for the morning. I feel like my to do list is yellowing from age and I need to get some things crossed off. So instead of boring old cold cereal and fruit, I opted for good old fashioned oatmeal

Not those salty, individual packets - real oatmeal. I added some pumpkin and some pumpkin pie spice to the water and set it to boil

Then added the oatmeal

 

and five minutes later - a great fall breakfast

As I'm sitting here waiting for my breakfast to cool down enough to eat, the sky looks like this.....

Happy Saturday Y'all!!

 

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Nothing Says Summer Like......

Today is National Watermelon Day

Remember sitting around and spitting out the watermelon seeds to see who could spit the farthest? And trying not to swallow any seeds cuz the older kids told you that if you swallowed the seeds a watermelon would grow in your belly? And using your dirty, bug sprayed forearm to wipe off the juice that was dripping down your chin. And then wiping that on your clothes? Ah, those were the days! I don't think I ever won that spitting distance contest but it was fun to participate!

AND National Chocolate Chip Day!

Hmmm, how to choose - watermelon or chocolate chip? But then, why choose?

I mean, you could just make cookies that look like watermelon, with chocolate chips on them

You could make them heart shaped

or on a stick

Or maybe a watermelon milkshake - you could use mini chocolate chips instead of jimmies. Just make sure you have enough for everyone because you know this will bring all the boys to your yard......

Jim doesn't really like watermelon, and I don't really like to cook, so we'll probably skip celebrating this one, but however you choose to celebrate this summer day - enjoy!

 

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Homemade Hummus

For Laura's graduation party I brought fruit salad and a vegetable tray with onion dip and hummus. I bought a brand of Hummus I had not heard of (Tribe) which, it turns out, is made locally in Taunton. It was really, really good.

 

Laura emailed me some recipes after, and I decided to try making some roasted red pepper hummus. I took the recipe from Vanessa's Values blog and changed it a little.

Here is the link to the original recipe:

http://vanessasvalues.blogspot.ro/2013/02/recipe-roasted-red-pepper-hummus.html

Here is my version of the recipe:

1 medium roasted red pepper

1 (16 oz.) can garbanzo beans (chick peas)

1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed)

1/8 cup olive oil (the recipe called for 1/4 cup, but because I used the oils from the red pepper, I decreased the oil)

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1 clove garlic (or 1/8 tsp. garlic powder)

salt to taste

1. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

2. Adjust seasonings to your taste.

And that's all there is to it!

At first I thought there was too much lemon, but after a couple of days all if the favors melded together and it was really good. I would definitely make it again. But next - spinach hummus!

 

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